The Fifth Sunday in Lent

The Rev. Tommy Thompson
John 12:20:33
5th Sunday in Lent
25 March 2012

“It’s Time for An Eye Exam”

Sometimes things are not as they appear.  Have you ever gone through a period of time where you thought your vision was just fine, so you skipped a few years worth of annual vision check-ups...you were certain your eyes had not changed much if at all over the years, so you stick with those lenses you currently wear, saving a few bucks in the process, and continue to see/perceive and understand the world through those lenses.  But then after a few years go by, you feel like you should go and get that check-up just in case.

After the eye examination, the ophthalmologist  lets you in on a bit of a surprise.  In the years you let pass thinking you saw the world just fine, you believed those lenses enabled you to see with 20/20 vision.  But in reality, your eye sight had become much worse...even to the point of causing your brain to misrepresent or confuse objects and realities.

The truth is, this kinda thing happens all of the time.  Sometimes we look through lenses that fool us ... they give us a perception of the world that is far from 20/20...

Today’s Gospel lesson finds itself in a whirlwind of festivity ... the days just before the high and holy festival of the Passover.  Jesus, only a day or two ago, had raised his dear friend Lazarus from the dead.  The news had spread quickly.  People from all over had come to see Jesus and to see Lazarus who Jesus had raised from the dead.  This was an amazing sign and wonder that only increased Jesus’ fame and popularity around the region.  The far-sighted crowds had been watching in amazement the signs and wonders Jesus has been accomplishing up to this point.  He turned water into wine.  He revealed things about persons that they barely even knew about themselves.  He healed the royal official’s son...He healed a man who had been ill for thirty eight years.  He fed 5,000 men not counting the women and children who would have been present that day.  Then, when they thought he could do no better, the rumors started spreading about how this Jesus even walked on water.  Then just before the raising of Lazarus, which was the miracle to top all miracles, Jesus healed a man born blind.

This would’ve been the way the far-sighted crowds would write their Gospel if they had a chance.  They could only see Jesus for how he appeared through the lenses that they had been wearing their whole lives.  They could see how he appeared from a distance...but they could not see who he was up close and personal.  The crowds were far-sighted.

So, right before the Greeks of our lesson today appear on seen asking to “see” Jesus, the crowds hear he is coming into Jerusalem for the great festival of the Passover.  They’ve read the Gospel according to the crowds, if you will.  They are expecting a Messiah to come...one who would perform signs and wonders...one who would ultimately ride into Jerusalem and save them from all harm, most particularly the immediate threat of the vast and powerful Roman Empire.

So when the crowds hear that this Jesus is coming to Jerusalem they armed themselves with the symbol of victory -- the palm branch.  They formed a great line on both sides of the road and started a procession out to meet the Jesus who was coming their way.  They waved their palm branches in the air and they shouted, “Hosanna!” which means “Bring Salvation Now!”  Which for them meant “Overthrow Rome Now!Restore Jerusalem and let the good times roll!”  They had looked through those lens for so long, that was the only way they could make sense out of Jesus...out of One who would have the potential to be their Messiah.  Hosanna! (Bring Salvation Now! Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord -- the King of Israel!

To fulfill Scripture, Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it and road into town. This action only affirmed their cries of Hosanna -- Bring Salvation Now...it only confirmed that they were indeed right about claiming Jesus to be the Messiah to come.  Jesus riding on a young donkey was visual fulfillment of Scripture -- “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.  Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”  But it also challenged their very way of seeing Jesus.  But they were not able to notice...maybe their vision suffered so much that they had confused the young donkey with a war-horse...because all indications suggests that from beginning to end, these crowds expected Jesus to come into Jerusalem with militaristic triumph, overcoming Rome and restoring Jerusalem.  They could not see how Jesus’ decision to ride in on a young donkey rather than a war horse was a sign in and of itself of the way of his victory and the true power of God ... their perception of God and of the world around them had been tainted by the lenses they had wore for oh so long.

They obviously did not understand the meaning of the visual Word that was before them from Zechariah 9: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem;  and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

He is the coming King...He is riding in victoriously...but he will not bring about victory with the weapons for war but instead will win victory by triumphing over the weapons of war and all they represent...He will bring peace by his humility and in this victorious activity, the truth of God and God’s power and reign will be revealed and actualized in the world.

But the crowds did not have the lens through which to understand the nature of this kingdom or the nature of this kingdom’s king and his victory.

So when immediately after Jesus’ ‘triumphal’ entry into Jerusalem, Greeks approach Jesus and request to Philip, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” it is no wonder Jesus responds to their question in the manner that he does. As the crowd of Jewish people who should know how to appropriately wait and hope for salvation are blind to who Jesus really is, there is no way at this current time the Greeks are going to understand who Jesus truly is either.  They, too, have skipped way too many eye exams...the lens through which they see Jesus and his activity are not powerful enough, so their lens, too, would only confuse their minds into misrepresenting God , the world, and most especially the nature of God and the way of His salvation -- the way of His coming kingdom.

So instead of having the Greeks brought to Jesus so that they can ‘see’ and ‘interview’ Jesus...to learn more about him, Jesus reveals to the disciples (who also have not yet received the corrective lenses) that the only way these Greeks and everyone else will ever truly see Jesus for who he really is.

In John’s Gospel up to this point Jesus has said “his hour has not yet come.”  It leads us to believe that whenever he finally does say “My hour has come,” it’s time to pay attention...because at that moment, the eye exam will commence and we will be offered a new set of lenses through which to see Jesus, the life of God, and the world around us afresh and for who and what He, they, it really is.

And what is Jesus’ response to the request of the Gentiles to “see Jesus?”  In John 12:23 Jesus answers, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

In other words, there is no need to bring them to me or me to them right now...the hour has come...they and you and everyone else is about to get an opportunity for a new set of corrective lenses -- to see me high and lifted up--glorified.  It is through this glorification -- this lifting up that they’ll really be able to see me -- that you’ll be really able to see me.  You’ll see why I’ve come -- the reason for all of the signs that weren’t to be ends in themselves but signs that pointed to who and whose I am and what i’m here to do.

When you see me lifted up on the cross, these are the lens through which to see me and understand my glorification: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”  It is my death, not military victory or anything else, that will bring about the new harvest -- the new covenant.  And it is only through death that newness will occur...only through death that you will be able to see me for who i really am...after Jesus dies, rises, ascends, and the Spirit is poured out (all of this is what he means by being glorified/lifted up), will you be able to see me for who I really am, the Father for who he really is, the Spirit for who it really is, the world for what it is truly becoming, yourself for who you’ve been, whose you are and who and whose you’re becoming.

And so, Jesus issues an invitation.  Stop trying to make sense out of my life and ministry through those tainted lens you currently wear and through your vision that is at best far sighted; instead follow me all the way to the divine ophthalmologist, the events of my death, resurrection, ascension, and pouring out of the Spirit, and have your vision corrected -- your life transformed.

That really is the point of this journey each and every year, sisters and brothers.  The Church year is an invitation every year to follow Jesus...to receive new site...to see the world, ourselves, and the triune God for what/who it really is and is becoming.  We are soon to enter into the climax of the year, of the life of Jesus Christ.  Let us remember how bad our vision is and look to Him who is lifted up because it is only in looking through the corrective lens of Holy Week and Easter that we’ll truly be able to see...and yes, that means we can’t skip the cross and show up for resurrection and we shouldn’t gather for His passion and miss out on Easter Sunday.  If we truly want to know him -- to see him for who he is, let us commit ourselves to slowing down over these next couple of weeks and accepting Jesus invitation: “Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

Amen.

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

18 March 2012

"Just Look Up!"

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

We are well on our way into the wilderness.  We are beyond the point of turning back -- just over half way through the church’s annual trek through the lenten desert.  I don’t know about you, but for me this is not easy.  Fasting and penitence falls under the category of “spiritual discipline” for a reason!  With Israel, we cry out, “we want real food and real drink...we are sick and tired of this miserable wilderness food!”  “We are sick and tired of going without...we want out of the wilderness.”  

If that’s you, that’s okay...I think in some ways the purpose of the journey is for us to cry out like this...

Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for quite some time now, too...and when you’re wandering in the wilderness for a long while, it is easy to forget who and whose you are...It is easy to return to the very things that we were called to turn from at the beginning of the journey -- those pacifiers of life...those things that do nothing but temporarily plug the voids in life that truly can only be filled by the Holy of Holies.  After so much wandering ...after so much discipline, we want to suck on those pacifiers again -- for all we are worth.  We want comfort...we want a quick fix.  

For Israel this meant learning the hard way...you’ve heard the story rehearsed time and time again.  Israel complains...God fulfills...Israel forgets...Israel complains...God fulfills.  In our reading today the same pattern occurs except this story includes poisonous serpents!  Sounds pretty mean on God’s part doesn’t it...Yes, your people are complaining...but isn’t it a bit cruel to teach them a lesson by throwing a bunch of poisonous snakes at them!?  

Before we go too far at dismissing the story, we should remember firstly, that this piece of theologized history is not meant to focus on whether or not God’s action of ‘sending poisonous serpents’ is just or not.  The original hearers would’ve never asked such questions.  For the most past, all of them had a high view of the sovereignty and providence of God.  If they would’ve walked upon a beautiful oasis surrounded by a fragrant garden of roses, they would’ve attributed that to God...and if they walk upon a slew of poisonous snakes they would’ve attributed that to God.  The reason for the former would be their faithfulness/righteousness and the reason for the latter would’ve been understood to be on account of their sin or unrighteousness.  

But we shouldn’t get bogged down there as we so easily want to as modern/post-modern readers and hearers.  Instead, we should hear the story and focus on what it truly is wanting us to focus upon...there’s a lesson to be learned in the wilderness full of complaining people and poisonous snakes.  

The people of God’s impatience and complaining in the wilderness for the ‘food of Egypt’ -- for the old way of life rather than the new way in which God is leading them, leaves Israel with a real-life snapshot of what life without God’s leadership looks like...you want it your way, this is what your way looks like!

Our kids want it there way sometimes, but we know if we let them have their own way, the end result won’t be too pretty, will it?  

Without God leading and discipling God’s way, the people of Israel are hindered from making any progress on the journey.  They are stuck in the middle of the desert attempting to make progress upon a road that is made of live, agitated rattle snakes...good luck treading upon that road!  

And that’s exactly what we look like when we suck on the pacifiers...when we return to the food of Egypt and the way of Egypt...when we live as if we are unbaptized.  All our efforts in moving forward in real life is like treading upon a road made out of poisonous serpents...we don’t get very far do we?

Here’s how Paul describes it: ‘You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.  All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.’  

Yes, the Lenten journey can be very arduous and the wilderness can get hot and we do become weary...but whatever you do, God says through St. Paul, don’t go back to the old way...that old road will only fill you with venom...be careful who you follow...the one who makes it sound easy...the one who says he can save you from the wilderness without taking you through it, don’t listen to him...instead, let God refresh you on where you’re headed...for Israel it was the land and she could only get there by going through the wilderness...and for us, it is resurrection into new creation and we can only get there by following Jesus through the wilderness these forty days into Jerusalem, being crucified with him in hope that we will rise into newness of life with him afresh this Easter.  

The purpose of those serpents in Numbers was to teach the people of God the only way they would make it to the promised land...stop complaining...stop pretending you know the way on your own...stop pretending your own wisdom and righteousness is good enough.  If you want to live, all you need to do is look upon that which Moses has lifted up in the wilderness...you can’t do anything about those serpents...no matter how hard you fight...no matter how hard you work, you will die...all you need to do is look upon the serpent of bronze and you will live...that is God’s mercy...and it is for you...

I like that scene in the movie “Finding Nemo.”  Dori and Marlin are flopping about on the dock and all of those annoying sea gulls (also known as ‘rats with wings’) are flying towards them crying out ‘mine mine mine.’  That’s a pretty hopeless situation for those too little fish out of water isn’t it!  But then Nigel, the most awesome Pelican ever, shows up and says, “Okay, don’t make any sudden moves...hop inside my mouth if you want to live.”  For Marlin, that sounded preposterous, but when he finally got inside the mouth, he was saved from the ravaging flock of rats with wings.  It wasn’t too good to be true...it wasn’t too easy and it wasn’t a trap!  Marlin and Dori were saved from what seemed to be sure death.

...I wonder how many thought that was just too good to be true and kept on fighting and kicking at venomous fangs rather than accepting what God had provided for their healing -- for their life?  

And how many of us are struggling through lent, forgetting the purpose of the wilderness, making it all about how good we are at keeping the fast...trying our hardest to earn God’s favor by a few extra good works here and there?  How many of us are doing nothing but kicking one serpent out of the way only to be bitten by the one right beside it?  

God has an invitation for you...for us: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have everlasting life.”  

It really is that simple.  That’s what God’s wanting to teach us this morning.  No, you can’t do it...your cries are right.  the journey is too difficult.  That’s why Jesus did it for you and for me and for WHOSOEVER is willing to look up and believe that you are loved and cherished.

God wants us to stop looking to the pacifiers...to stop working our butts off for something we cannot possibly earn and simply look upon His Son, who will truly satisfy and save.  Follow him and only him...His being lifted up upon the cross is God’s loving response to our sinful disobedience that has had us treading upon snakes for way too long.  His resurrection and ascension is the gate to God’s life -- the fulfilled life being opened wide for all of us...His righteousness is victorious and His righteousness can be our righteousness if we only stop fighting those serpents long enough to look, behold, and believe that Jesus is as He has been revealed.  

I think St. Paul sums it all up quite beautifully: 

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ: by grace you have been saved.” How have you been saved again?  by grace you have been saved.  and God ‘raised us up with Jesus and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...could he emphasis with Jesus and in Jesus any more!?  And he did this ‘so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.’  This way of life we are being led upon is leading us somewhere -- to new creation...the world overflowing with the immeasurable riches of God’s grace ...God’s kindness.  

It seems Lent is too hard sometimes...sometimes it doesn’t make sense...we’ve got our own ideas about where we should go...but God is ridding us of the pacifiers and re-directing us to the cross for a reason...he is making a masterpiece out of us...and one day it is going to make more sense than anything ever has ever before...so keep on following...keep on living in grace....keep on depending on nothing for your healing and salvation except God’s never-ending mercy.  Because it is by grace that you have been saved through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ--THIS IS NOT YOUR OWN DOING. No, it is the GIFT OF GOD!  NOT THE RESULT OF WORKS so that NO ONE MAY BOAST.  For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand to be our way of life.  Keep living that way of life this lent and watch what God makes out of us.  

Amen.  

2nd Sunday in Lent

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

2nd Sunday in Lent

4 March 2012

Her name was Susan.  She was a mother of three beautiful children. They lived out in the middle of nowhere.  She didn’t have much...she and the children had to wear homemade clothing or hand-me-down clothing.  She did everything she could to make her husband’s paycheck stretch far enough to keep the lights on and the water running for one more month... Her biggest goal was to put something on the table for her children to eat each day...and it was a good day when that something was a hot meal.  And then there was her husband...he was an abusive, raging alcoholic.  He had his way of making her feel like he was the only possibility for her. “You’ve got no other place to go...”  “You said for better or for worse.”  “Think of our kids...”  he made her know that the little bit they did have depended upon her being with him...

But Susan believed that all was not grim...she had passed by that little church on the hill so many times on the way to the school or the grocery store.  She had felt like she was being asked to go there...so she thought ‘why not?’ ‘what do I have to lose?’  

Susan attended that little church on the hill...and she felt welcomed...overwhelmingly so.  Her children were attending the children’s bible classes.  She was meeting new people.  She was joining God’s people in the worship of the holy God...her life was beginning to change...  All felt so right.  She wanted to offer something in thanksgiving to this God for what he was already doing in these short few weeks that she had been worshipping with the little church on the hill.  She was a very good seamstress...if she started working now, she could work up some nice costumes for the children and have a children’s Christmas pageant this year, if the church would be okay with it.  She went to the pastor and she sheepishly asked, ‘i know i haven’t been here long...i don’t know a whole lot about the bible...about the church...but I feel like i need to use my sewing for God...could I...i mean, would y’all be okay with me sewing some costumes and putting together a Christmas pageant this year?  

The pastor thought it to be a fantastic idea.  He told her, “Sure! My wife has been wanting to do this too...let’s decide what evening we would like to do it on, and you both can head this up.”  She was excited!  Her kids were gonna be able to tell the story of the birth of Jesus for people to hear and she got to make the costumes for the pageant! 

What a wonderful response to grace!  

Oh, but she went too far too quickly...too much change too quickly...sometimes God moves folks and if they respond faithfully, they are in for it.  It wasn’t but a few days since the pastor had agreed with Susan that it’d be a great idea to do the Christmas pageant one evening for the community and for Susan and the pastor’s wife to head it up.  And that’s all the time they needed to put together their plan.  Following the meeting of the church council one evening, one of the long-standing members of the church caught the pastor in the parking lot as they were leaving the church building.  “Preacher!  I need to have a word with you!”  “Well, okay. What is it, JoAnna?”  “We’ve heard about how much this new lady...what’s her name? ... Susan...is doing in the church right now.  And we’re not happy...who do you think you are?  You’ve been pastor of this church for hardly a year...we’ve been at this church our whole lives.  Who do you think you are letting that lady lead anything in this church?  Do you know anything bout her home life?  Do you know the rumors in this community?  She hasn’t proved herself in this community...she has no business leading anything in our church.  And if you don’t tell her she can’t do it...you’re gonna lose me, my family, and many others.  

God was leading Susan to faith...but some of his people had problems with that...For them salvation came with their own set of preconditions.  If you are going to be a vital part of our community, then you must first do _________.  In this situation, it was about Susan not yet being good enough...it was never clearly laid out what exactly she would need to do to ‘prove herself’ worthy of a place among the disciples of Jesus Christ....

...In Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he deals with similar ‘preconditions’...  

Romans is among the earliest New Testament writings we have.  Paul’s letter was written before the temple was destroyed in 70A.D.  It was that period where the difference between Christian and Jewish did not really exist.  To be Christian meant to be a fulfilled Jewish person for the most part.  It meant you believed that Jesus really is the Messiah...and because Jesus is the Messiah, you now read the entire history of Israel over again with Jesus as it’s fulfillment and interpretive key.  Many had trouble with this...and Paul’s letter to the Romans is written in regard to these very issues...it is written to Jews and Gentiles of the Roman church who are trying to make sense out of what it means for this Jesus who was crucified and raised to be Israel’s Messiah.  

For the Gentiles, it meant Paul had to work very hard helping them to see that they are not part of some new religion ... he worked hard at persuading them that everything Jesus did and taught and now expects from the church is in continuity with and in fulfillment of the Old Covenant...he wants the Gentile church to take seriously the story of Israel...

But there’s a balance here...and that’s the issue Paul takes up with the Jewish members of the Roman church.  The sign of the new covenant is not circumcision nor is it’s way the Torah or the “Law.”  

So Paul’s letter to the Romans, in a nutshell, is to Jews and Gentiles who are working out the implications of Jesus being the long awaited Messiah of Israel -- the Righteousness of God for both Jews and Gentiles.   

Righteousness -- that is exactly what chapter four is all about.  Paul is shedding light on how God has made the world righteous...which means put to rights or put in right relationship with God.  The Jewish believers have been demanding that the Gentiles in the church must identify with law and circumcision if they are to be a true part of the people of God. They have set preconditions that they expect the Gentiles to go through in order to be ‘really’ one of them...to ‘prove themselves’ before being able to lead in the church....Of course this is fueled in part by the Gentile insistence that they need not pay attention to the history of Israel...

In Romans 4, Paul is dealing with both of these issues.  In the opening verse of today’s reading, “The promise that Abraham would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.”   

It didn’t come through the law...the law wasn’t even laid out yet...besides that righteousness would be impossible through the law, because as Paul says, the law reveals how sinful we really are...it brings wrath...

But Gentile people, pay attention the story of Israel...because that’s where the story of salvation begins...After God had created all that is and named it as good...and we sinned against God, causing evil to run rampant in the world, God did not give up on us...instead he called a person and a family who were part of the problem to be a part of God’s solution. His name was Abram...His wife’s name was Sara.  The promise was that through Abram, God would begin his project of saving the world that had become subject to sin, death, and decay eventually changing Abram and Sarah’s name as a mark of the transformation God is bringing about in God’s world.  

So Paul makes clear to the Roman church: It is the faith of Abraham that is fruit of righteousness...not the law or anything else.  Consider Abraham...He was good as dead...His wife was barren...100 years old...if the promise is going to be, Abraham and Sarah know it isn’t going to be up to them.  There is nothing they can do to prime the pump of God’s promises...they learned that the hard way with the whole incident of Hagar and Ishmael.  The faith of Abraham is about realizing that without God’s saving intervention, there is absolutely no hope for newness or transformation...it requires a radical shift in the way we see ourselves....

Jesus put it like this: “"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Abraham was a foretaste of this kind of radical discipleship...he was as good as dead ... he had to deny himself and trust in the God who calls into existence things that do not exist...who gives life to the dead.  

That’s what the faith of Abraham is all about...for those of us in the church, it means no preconditions.  There is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING we can do to become righteous -- rightly related to God and one another...circumcision won’t magically make it happen...adherence to the law will only frustrate.  If you want to be a follower of Jesus,  death must occur...death to self...death to the idea that says ‘if it’s going to be, it’s up to me.”  Take up your cross and follow him so that in losing your life completely, you might truly, for once, have it completely through Him who is able to give life to the dead...who rose from the grave.  

By bringing into focus the story of Abraham, Paul is able to make it crystal clear for Jews and Gentiles alike in Rome...don’t depend upon your ancestry for righteousness--it’s not good enough.  But Gentiles, don’t discredit the history of Israel, because it is through that history that salvation comes to fruition.   

And for us, the contemporary church, the challenge is deep.  Paul has made it clear by focusing on the covenant to Abraham that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn favor with God--we are dead in our sins...if we are going to be anything else, this God who is able to call into existence that which did not exist...this God who is able to give life to the dead, is going to have to act.  

And that is the good news of the Gospel.  This God has acted once and for all in Jesus the Messiah’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and final return.  We have been made righteous...the world is being put to rights...not by our works...not by our socio-economic status...not because of how long we’ve sat down and stood up in a church building...not because of who our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles are...and not even because we have faith.   Because not even faith is the precondition for righteousness.  Faith is it's fruit. N.T. Wright says, "Faith is the sign of life; life is the gift of God. Justification is God's declaration that where this sign of life appears, the person in whom it appears is within the covenant."I think too often we make the little bit of faith we can muster up the star of salvation. No, Paul makes it clear: “It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification." It is not "my faith" in Jesus that makes me righteous before God but Jesus' 'once-for-all' faithfulness as our human representative that makes me righteous. If Jesus did not raise from the dead, we would still be in our sins...it wouldn’t matter how much faith we could muster up...

And so, if it is not even the little bit of faith that I can muster up that is the cause of righteousness, then why is the church going around telling the Susan’s of the world, ‘prove yourself?’  Do we really believe that Jesus has done everything that is necessary for salvation -- for right-relatedness?  Is there something else someone else needs to do to put the world to rights?  Why is the church telling Susan she can’t be apart of them until she’s met a certain amount of preconditions that have nothing to do with taking up the cross and following Jesus?  

Let’s revisit that true story and bring it to it’s conclusion. Remember JoAnna, the disgruntled church council member...she was letting the pastor have it for allowing Susan to have a place in the church before she had “proved herself” to a certain group of church members of that little church on the hill.  In response to JoAnna’s threat that she would leave the church if the pastor did not tell Susan she couldn’t do the Christmas pageant, the pastor responded, “I’ll make a deal with you, JoAnna.  If you can show me anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus looked at a potential disciple and said, “Get your life right...prove yourself worthy, and then follow me,” I’ll go and tell Susan she can’t be apart of this.  If you cannot, I cannot.

I wish I could say that the church member had a coming to Jesus moment and Susan did the Christmas pageant and all is well...but it didn’t happen that way, unfortunately...JoAnna did as she said she would...first she made sure Susan wouldn’t come back to the church...and then she and her family left the church until the pastor was no longer at the little church on the hill and they returned to their seats of power.  

This Lent the Gospel gives us the fresh invitation to follow Jesus to Jerusalem...to take up the cross and die to preconditions...to die to the way of the world and to live in the faith of Abraham that believes for all people that Jesus is and has done everything necessary for our salvation.  Let us freely accept whoever God sends our way and let that acceptance be the fruit of righteousness Paul calls faith.  Amen.